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Canucks Stand on Business |
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Let the man cook, they say. And that man is Canucks Head Chef Patrick Allvin.
Allvin put on a workshop over the weekend, tidying up the Canucks roster with some savvy moves ahead of roster deadline day yesterday. The Canucks organization and fanbase feel confident going into the season with this man making decisions at the helm – something that has, uh, been missing for a while.
“What I do like is the internal drive here in the organization,” Allvin said Monday in a press conference. “You know, the front office, the coaching staff, the players who always want to push each other... we want to get better, and I think that's a healthy sign in an organization.”
To run down:
The Canucks traded away Poolman plus a 4th rounder to Colorado for Erik Brannstrom, who they subsequently waived. The Canucks wanted to avoid LTIR this season, and in one fell swoop Allvin made that a possibility – as well as opening up roster spots for the guys who made it out of camp and allowing the team to carry a larger complement of players. In Brannstrom they get an undersized defender, but he was a former first round pick and the hope is they can develop him a little more down in Abbotsford. He provides some nice depth in any situation, as the Canucks don’t have a ton of puck movers that have NHL experience. But avoiding LTIR (and opening roster spots) was a huge win for the brass:
“It definitely helps us, definitely helps the competition (within the team) with some flexibility here now,” said Allvin. “I think all good teams have depth and all good teams have the internal competition, so I'm happy for coaches to have harder decisions to make. It's good for the younger players to get a chance for the callups.
“It's easier to work not being in LTIR and the difficulty of setting (the) roster, as we did last year. I think this definitely gives us more flexibility. And, as I said, I am excited about the competition here.”
The Canucks are now able to run 13 forwards and 8 blueliners instead of the potential 12 forwards and 7 defencemen that they were looking at before that trade.
On the heels of that, Allvin signed Hoglander to a 3 year, 9 mil extension. It’s been well-earned from Hoglander, who put up 24-goals last season. He’s a versatile player who the Canucks have locked up through his RFA and one UFA year, so they won’t have to go down the arbitration or contract negotiation path for a while. While he was great in the regular season last year, there's a lot of room for Hoggy to grow in the post-season. I think we’ll see some big strides this year out of him.
Then, the Canucks claimed back goalie Jiri Patera from Boston, who were going through something of a goalie controversy over there. It all worked out in the end, even if a little wonky for Patera.
“I think Boston apologized,” Allvin said, “but that's part of the business.”
Overall, the lineup is set… for now. Opening night roster guess from me is something like:
Forwards
Danton Heinen — J.T. Miller — Brock Boeser
Jake DeBrusk — Elias Pettersson — Daniel Sprong
Nils Hoglander — Teddy Blueger — Conor Garland
Aatu Raty — Pius Suter — Kiefer Sherwood
Defence
Quinn Hughes — Filip Hronek
Carson Soucy — Tyler Myers
Derek Forbort — Vincent Desharnais
Goalies
Arturs Silovs
Kevin Lankinen
Extras: Nils Aman, Noah Juulsen, Mark Friedman
Due to the roster squeeze, contract type, cap space, and all the other factors, Arshdeep Bains was cut from the roster. He earned his spot, but sometimes things don’t break for you. He’ll definitely get a call up this year as he impressed in the preseason.
“It was tough,” Allvin admitted about the Bains re-assignment decision. “We met this morning and we still have a couple of days (before the opener) and things could change. But we’re very pleased with how he prepared himself in the summer and he just got better — especially his last two games — against the full Edmonton lineup and carried himself very well.
“We’re very excited and Tocchet hasn’t made up his mind for the lineup Wednesday.”
As per the norm, Allvin didn’t really have an update on Demko. He’s still progressing, but there’s no timeline for him right now. The Canucks will be running with Silovs and Lankinen to start the season, and may carrying three goalies on the roster when Demko comes back… but for now Allvin is happy with the netminders.
“I'm very confident with Silovs and Lankinen,” Allvin said. “Kevin has come in here with a great attitude. And he's an experienced goalie. His work ethic is pushing Silovs, and I think Silovs has responded really well. I think those guys. . . set us up really well. The coach has obviously got to make a decision who's playing, but I'm very comfortable with those guys carrying the load here.”
And now, we get to regular season action! The Canucks season opens on Wednesday against the Flames. Time to get pumped up!
For that, we got comments:
Quotes from the Province and Sportsnet.
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